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So what makes a MOTM winner?

The MOTM contest has been running for a number of years and sometimes the winners surprise me, sometimes they don't. There have been some lean months where I have felt the winners weren't actually worthy of winning anything, but due to the lack of competition they did. But that's my opinion.

Recently, a member mentioned in a thread that they had thrown some amazing markers but had yet to win and it started me thinking as to what makes a Mag worthy of MOTM? I know when I look at entries I look deeper than flashy ano. For me, the uniqueness and amount of actual work that went into an entry is at times more important that something put together with completely stock parts and anodized crazy colors. While I appreciate the entry, I am more likely to vote for something less flashy that has had special milling done and is unique. With that said the uniqueness has to be attractive. Simply slapping an oddball frame onto a stock Mag isn't going to do it for me.

I also think at times that some members' markers win due to popularity of that member. Kind of like the cool kids winning Prom King and Queen. But that's another thread. LOL.

In the classic class I generally look at how classic it actually it first. There are a lot of things that are entered as classic that I don't think are. Then I look at aesthetics and if it is a splashed kit the completeness of the kit.

For open I look at the overall thing, milling, parts, finish, and uniqueness. I'm often surprised at what wins and how close the vote is.

uniquiness is definently what I look for too,
I have yet to post anything into open that didn't take time and effort into putting together. along with the milling and such.
but some times open class is a flashy competition.

it is a cool kids club most of the time, I can see that.

its ok, though.

I just posted that comment in the thread just to get people thinking I guess.

I sell new 800 mah Emag batteries, in dealers section, or pm for pricing. batteries ready to ship

everyone has their own criteria for how they vote and that's what makes it fun

if flashy ano is your thing, vote for it. if you like rare or unusual parts, there ya go. if you just think someone is a cool guy and you want to help him/her out with their votes, that's ok too.

just remember that it's fun. there's been a few times where bickering has almost shut it down (and I've been guilty of it myself) but in the end, we all appreciate Mags and this gives us an outlet to show 'em off to each other.

uniquiness is definently what I look for too,
I have yet to post anything into open that didn't take time and effort into putting together. along with the milling and such.
but some times open class is a flashy competition.

it is a cool kids club most of the time, I can see that.

its ok, though.

I just posted that comment in the thread just to get people thinking I guess.

While I generally agree with what you are saying consider I've won 4 times, twice in open and all of them were black. And I don't consider myself particularly popular on here either.

One thing I forgot to mention above it how certain things drive me nuts and will cause me to not vote for something. Mismatched or rusty grip screws. Poor choice in air fittings. To me nothing is more distracting than seeing a beautifully anodized marker with ugly chewed up macro fittings. Raw milled parts. Strip it down completely and polish it or get it anodized. Just my opinion. And naked girl stickers, drops, or barrel covers. Instantly gets a thumbs down for me. If I wanted anime pron I would be trolling those sites.

i tend to vote for whatever strikes my fancy at that particular moment. my reason for one vote may be completely different from another instance. you could post the same entrants in consecutive months, and i may very well pick two different ones. one month it could be the cool lines/flow of a marker, the next could be the outrageous ano.

Guess I've missed the whole popularity trick to all of this. There are people who I respect because of their knowledge and willingness to share it. There are other people who I think should pause and think before hitting send. They end up making what could have been a useful thread into a pissing contest. That being said I wouldn't not vote for the latter persons marker if I felt it was deserving.

first of all if i am entered i will not vote for myself but thats just me. for open class i say bring it on, whatever you like but as to what makes me vote for it that differs all the time. i've seen a lot of Classic winners that i thought didn't think were classic enought but thats just me again. maybe we need a 3rd catagory for heavily modified.

While I generally agree with what you are saying consider I've won 4 times, twice in open and all of them were black. And I don't consider myself particularly popular on here either.

One thing I forgot to mention above it how certain things drive me nuts and will cause me to not vote for something. Mismatched or rusty grip screws. Poor choice in air fittings. To me nothing is more distracting than seeing a beautifully anodized marker with ugly chewed up macro fittings. Raw milled parts. Strip it down completely and polish it or get it anodized. Just my opinion. And naked girl stickers, drops, or barrel covers. Instantly gets a thumbs down for me. If I wanted anime pron I would be trolling those sites.

I agree with some of this. I can't stand old chewed up air fittings and I really dislike when people use screws that don't have Allen heads for there grips. A philips head screw just looks so out of place.

That being said, my vote usually comes down to the moment, whatever tickles my fancy will get my vote that day. Sometimes it's ano, other times it is the milling or rare parts but usually it's how well I think the parts compliment each other. For example I think certain frames match up better with certain types of foregrips and so forth.

a good, clear picture showing off the marker definitely helps. have good lighting, take off all the stuff that is not marker-related (tank, loader, barrel bag), make sure the lighting is good, no harsh shadows, make sure the entire gun is in frame (no cut-off barrels, etc).

that said, the past couple of entries i voted for, or really liked, won, and it wasn't just because of the picture quality, but the build quality.

Originally Posted by OPBN

I also think at times that some members' markers win due to popularity of that member.

i dunno; most of the time they are just nice builds, and said member just has a lot of them. there does seem to be a bias towards fancy anodizing, though.

Originally Posted by OPBN

While I generally agree with what you are saying consider I've won 4 times, twice in open and all of them were black. And I don't consider myself particularly popular on here either.

proving the point that popularity is not a major factor, and build quality is. if it's unique enough, and well-done, it'll get votes. your last entry, if i recall correctly, was a deserved win in my opinion (certainly got my vote).

One short cut for winning is a pump-mag, they always seem to get a few extra votes. For that reason, I think the question for many people is "would I want to play with that?", while others wonder "would that look good on my wall?". The open class especially will make me ask both questions, not that I have a wall (sniff). Sometimes you have to enter just to shake the tree and get the competition going.

I haven't figured out if pneumags get as much credit as pump-mags. Also, extreme custom mags often don't get the votes you might think, and I wonder if part of it is because they are basically unobtainable for everyone else, as compared to a build from rare parts and contracting. Maybe they don't look much like mags anymore.

Last edited by Spider-TW; 07-29-2014 at 03:24 PM.
Reason: much is a must

For the open class :
Definetely, first thing I'm looking is the uniqueness of the parts, and the marker. That shows a lot of work and efforts to get the parts together.
After comes the attention to details, nice fittings, no rusted screws, etc
Overall looking, scuffs and marks ...
The ano comes after these, because it's a subjective critera. On my side, I'm not fan of complicated ano like acid wash or splash (even I find some to be very nice), I like simple ano, one or 2 colors, fade.

I think its a fun concept, but that being said, I don't view it very seriously. It is as much a popularity contest for the member as much as the marker, but even that depends on the flavor of the month, or overall quality of submissions that month.

Heck it probably comes down to quality of the image, rather than the market itself, sometimes.

Now the Best Automag at Tunaball... THAT is a competition I take seriously.

For open class I generally go for what is the most "polished", I normally look at how the parts compliment each other in both form and function, finish of fittings and screws has swayed me. A lot of times I think less is more, a beautiful gun can be overdone with too crazy an anno, or an anno that hides the body milling. I guess I like guns that look like they could have been designed and came straight from the factory, ones I wished AGD had made.

Splat15k's milled emag rail on his XMTbodied mini is perfect example, taking the time to mill the front side to remove the spot for the jewls. And the hardline with ccm fittings!
TwilightG, Dec 09 chrod, dallara, m90, so clean!

I don't chime in too often, but voting and buying parts from the dealers is my way of participating. I hope everyone just keeps making them and being creative with their builds.

Who's gun it is never plays into things for me. Frankly I don't even look at that till I go to vote.

What I look at is the artistic elements. Do the parts work with each other...blocky tactical parts don't often flow well with the more curvy organic parts. Then I go to anno...does it go with the design of the gun? An anno that works well for tactical gun may or may not work well on a more organic gun. Occasionally it does but often not.

for me its just the one i like the most out of the selection, just because something has a certin part or whatever doesnt mean it should automatically win... for me its just the one i like the most of the ones listed. that doesnt mean the others are less of a marker in any way! setting standards like if it has this and that will stop people from winning that would have a chance..... it should just be the marker u like the most nothing more